International Press Institute (IPI) Executive Board Chair Markus Spillmann today paid a solidarity visit to former journalists and executives with the secular daily Cumhuriyet whose arbitrary convictions and jail sentences were upheld by an appeals court in Turkey last month.

Spillmann and IPI Turkey Advocacy Coordinator Caroline Stockford met today in Istanbul with several defendants in the case, including IPI Executive Board member Kadri Gürsel and three other Cumhuriyet staff members: Önder Çelik and Mustafa Kemal Güngör and the newspaper’s accountant, Emre İper. They are among the 14 journalists and executives sentenced last April to prison on terror charges despite a lack of evidence.